Jeff Wesley is optimistic and satisfied with a presentation he conducted this week in front of the Ministry of Health, regarding the future of Wallaceburg’s hospital.
Wesley told the Sydenham Current that the outcome of the Tuesday meeting was positive.
“The purpose of going down there is that our community has been dealing with the hospital issue for years and years and years and I think it’s important for the community to get some sort of certainty as to where the project is, so that they can have some comfort going forward and we don’t have this on going anxiety about what is around the next corner.”
Wesley said the Ministry was very interested in the history and the background of Sydenham District Hospital.
The second thing Wesley discussed with them was about the hospital not being in the best of shape.
That is a great concern of a lot for people and we are worried because there hasn’t been a lot of money put into maintenance and maintaining of the current hospital. We are concerned as a community that at some point somebody is going to walk in there, not from a health perspective but a safety, labour or environmental point of view, and say ‘hey, this building hasn’t been maintained or it’s not fit for people to be in here.’ Not fit for this type of service and they will close it down and we wont have had an answer for a new hospital in Wallaceburg.”
Wesley said he provided them with binder filled with letters of support.
“From the community, the local municipalities and Walpole Island First Nations. It also had the physical assessment report on Sydenham Hospital. It had the updated information from the Imagine Project, my presentation to the standing committee on finance and economic affairs. It had all of that just so they would get the full picture.”
Wesley said the Ministry committed to providing him with an update on the current status of the Sydenham District Hospital Capital Project and where does it sit in the cue.
“What if anything can we do to help push it forward or what additional information do they need,” he said. “That’s important because if you submit things for projects and than you don’t follow up with them or you don’t advocate for them, then they are going to get lost in the shuffle and other projects are put in front of you.”
Wesley said the Ministry is also going to follow-up with information in terms of timing for the whole project.
“We don’t want to get in the situation where something major is going to go wrong and all of the sudden we are in a crisis,” he said. “I have to admit they didn’t seem overly concerned with that side of it, in the sense that I know if they had a sense of urgency about it, they would have said that to me. The comment was made that ‘Well you know… there are a lot of hospitals out there in Ontario that are in a lot worse shape.’ You don’t want to hear that about some other place but there is some comfort in that to know that we are not at the bottom of the barrel.”
Wesley said having patience moving forward will be important.
“I’ll be the first to admit, that’s not one of my strong virtues. I’m trying to be patient and I’m going to keep in touch with them so we can get an answer. The community needs to know.”
Wesley said he also expressed the high level of passion in the approximate 25,000 person catchment area to the Ministry.
“I don’t think that another catchment area in all of Canada is a passionate and dedicated to the welfare of the hospital as there is in this one,” he said.
Wesley said the Ministry also relayed information about Ontario looking into creating hubs of small and rural hospitals, as a way to provide services in a community
Wesley said he also submitted an assortment of letters to the Ministry from the community.
“Every single letter I received was given to them and I indicated that we have letters here from all the surrounding municipalities, Walpole Island First Nation, signification organizations in Wallaceburg, the Kinsmen Club, Wallaceburg Museum. Even had a letter that was all signed by a group who called them selves ‘The McDonald’s coffee group’. You had Charlie Kridiotis from Crabby Joe’s and he has his employees sign.”
Wesley added: “You know there are all these kind of neat stories. As you read through, there are stories in there that are based on facts. There are some that take on a historical factor and there are some that really tug at your heart because there are people who have not had the best of health and they really relied on the hospital to be their life saver.”
Wesley said he was not given a timetable for when he would hear back from the Ministry.
“They were very interested in what I had to say and asked some good questions back, so it was a good meeting.”
